"GOLDEN, CHRISTIE - THE LAST ROUND-UP" - читать интересную книгу автора (Golden Christie)

"And their goal was to completely destroy the colony, in order to strike
fear into the heart of Earth forces."

"Negative, sir!" Brown's smile widened as he caught Kirk's trick
question. "Their goal was to take over the colony in order to harvest
the dilithium."

"Which was to be used how?"

"To develop warp drive and create more ships to bring to bear against
Earth forces in the war. Sir!"

"Very good. You too have a head start on the final, Mr. Brown. Cadet
T'Pran, pick up the narrative from this point."

Cadet Skalli was now actually stomping in impatience. Kirk had once
tried to curb these physical displays of her irritation, but it was
impossible. It was simply a part of what she was--a Huanni.

T'Pran, a coolly beautiful young Vulcan female whose calm demeanor was
the antithesis of Skalli's, predictably showed no emotion as she obeyed
Kirk's request.

"There was insufficient time for Earth to send defense vessels.

The colony had no weapons other than approximately two hundred handheld
phase guns, fourteen primitive torpedoes, sixteen assorted pieces of
mining equipment, and four thousand, eight hundred and twenty-seven
detonation devices."

Not for the first time, Kirk marveled at how Vulcans used the word
approximately.

"Very good. Cadet Lasskas, continue."

The translator turned Lasskas's hissing dialect into intelligible
Federation standard, though it played a bit with sentence structure.

"Commander Lowe choice had none. Selected she to colony destroy,
detonation devices all deployed at time same. Not Romulan hands fall
into, precious dilithium, at time of war when vulnerable Earth. Died
eight and forty and one hundred males and females by order of Commander
Lowe."

"Most of that is correct, but there's something very wrong with that
answer. Do you know what it is?"

Lasskas's sharp-toothed muzzle opened and his thick, green, forked
tongue fluttered. Since the rest of his face was unable to move, that
long tongue was the only indicator of his emotions. He clearly had no